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Rape Victim Stoned to Death in Somalia Was 13, U.N. Says

NAIROBI, Kenya - The United Nations said Tuesday that a Somali stoned to death by Islamist militants after she had been accused of adultery was a 13-year-old girl who had been raped while visiting her grandmother.

In the first such public killing by the militants in about two years, she was placed in a hole and stoned to death on Oct. 28 in a rebel-held port city, Kismayu, in front of a crowd, after local leaders said she was guilty under Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Koran.

Witnesses said at the time that the victim had been a 23-year-old woman.

“Reports indicate that she had been raped by three men while traveling on foot to visit her grandmother in the war-torn capital, Mogadishu,” Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, said in a statement.

“Following the assault, she sought protection from the authorities, who then accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death,” Unicef added. “A child was victimized twice — first by the perpetrators of the rape and then by those responsible for administering justice.”

Unicef said the episode highlighted the vulnerability of girls and women in Somalia, which has suffered under cycles of civil conflict for the past 17 years. In the latest cycle, Islamist rebels are fighting the government and their Ethiopian military backers.

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Rebel spokesmen could not be reached immediately to respond to Unicef’s accusation.

The human rights group Amnesty International has identified the girl as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow and said she was killed by 50 men who stoned her in a stadium in Kismayu in front of about 1,000 spectators.

Her father and other sources were quoted by Amnesty International as saying that she had been raped by three men.